BJU Press Blog

poetry

Teaching Poetry in Your Homeschool

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teaching poetry
Have you ever read Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro”? This twenty-word poem seems simple on the surface. In spite of that, I never really got it until one of my teachers took the time to flesh out its significance. We talked about the sounds and rhythm of the poem itself, the culture Pound lived in, his beliefs as a poet and writer, and the event that inspired the poem. All this information together inspired in me a deep appreciation for Pound’s art and for this poem in particular.

In the course of your child’s education, you’re probably going to read many poems. Let’s take a look at some approaches for teaching poetry to help your children better understand and appreciate it.

Looking for Sounds

Poets choose words not only for their meaning but also for their sound. Words with hard consonant sounds—b, d, k, and t—can sound harsh and forceful. In contrast, words with softer consonant sounds—l, m, n, and s—are melodic and have a gentle flow. In Pound’s poem, the sounds seem to mimic the noises a steam train makes as it comes into a station. The sounds grow harder as the train brakes and slows.

Analyzing Meter or Rhythm

All poems have rhythm. Some poems have metered rhythm—a regular pattern of stressed and nonstressed syllables. You might remember iambic pentameter from your own studies. For example, Shakespeare’s “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” uses iambic pentameter. Other poems don’t have regular meter, but they still have rhythmic sense, especially when they are well crafted. The words Pound uses in his poem not only sound train-like but also have a rhythm that supports the feeling of a train coming to a stop.

It’s surprisingly easy to spend time analyzing the sounds of a poem. In fact, there is a whole bank of terms to draw from to talk about sounds more effectively, and BJU Press literature books explore many of those terms. Have your child look up John Updike’s “Winter Ocean,” available in Elements of Literature (2nd edition). Updike doesn’t rely solely on melodic and gentle sounds to describe his ocean. He combines hard and soft consonant sounds in lines such as “Many-maned scud-thumper” and “shrub-/ruster, sky-mocker, rave!” The winter ocean is not always gentle.

Considering historical context

Looking at something according to its context should already be familiar to your children from hearing sermons and doing Bible studies. When exploring a Scripture passage, we should take a close look at the immediate context of the verse as well as what we know about the cultural beliefs, the life of the author of that book, and the original meanings of the words themselves. The same strategies for Bible study apply to poetry. If the reader knows how subway stations looked in the early 1900s, his appreciation for Pound’s poem increases.

Learning about the poet

At times, the simplest detail about where the poet lived and what he believed can help your children understand what the poet meant. In Pound’s case, knowing that he studied haiku helps us see why he chose to condense his poem to three short lines. And if we read that he once said in a letter, “I got out of a metro train . . . and saw suddenly a beautiful face, and then another and another,” we understand better how to view the poem.

Discovering the meanings of the words

Sometimes, your children will need to learn what the words meant way-back-when. Take a look at Christina Rossetti’s poem “Symbols,” discussed in Excursions in Literature (3rd edition). The textbook points out that Rossetti lived from 1830 to 1894 in England. Many of the words she would have used regularly simply aren’t commonly used today. For example, when is the matin hour? And what does evensong mean? The Oxford English Dictionary is a great resource for learning the history of English words. By looking up these words, we can see that they both have to do with hours dedicated to prayer in the church—one in the early morning and the other in the evening. In other words, the rosebud that the speaker watches blooms and falls the same day. In Pound’s poem, it might be helpful to look up apparition. Its meaning combined with its sound and rhythm make it the perfect choice.

Poetry can inspire even a young child to look at things a little differently and to appreciate the power of language. You could probably spend hours delving into the depths of poetry. But you and your children don’t have to spend a long time on every poem. Finding even a few things in a poem that give it more meaning or beauty will make him a better reader—and maybe even a writer!

Teaching Elementary Poetry Writing (Printable)

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Have you ever read a poem and felt like what you were reading was a Jackson Pollock splatter painting in words? All that most of us can remember about studying Emily Dickinson’s poetry in high school is reading a bunch of words that are somehow supposed to make sense together but don’t—or perhaps the teacher’s explanation of how the poet’s choice of a certain color expresses her sorrow over a particular event in her life that seems completely unrelated to the poem.

If you’re about to start teaching your child to write poetry, you may be looking back at your past experiences with poetry and asking yourself two questions: why and how?

Why should I teach elementary poetry writing?

Writing poetry teaches your child to use creative description.

Forget splatter paintings and layered meanings. In its simplest form, poetry is about description. It’s using words to express a feeling or an idea in such a way that readers can’t help but say, “Yes, that!” whether or not they’ve experienced that feeling or idea before.

This kind of description is by nature concise and precise. It’s concise because using fewer words eliminates distractions, and it’s precise because in order to create the clearest pictures, words must rely on their exact meanings.

How should I teach elementary poetry writing?

There are hundreds of poetry forms to choose from, in addition to free verse, but one of my favorite forms and one of the easiest to start with is the diamante. Using it encourages your child to start mastering the conciseness and precision necessary in poetry. You can find examples of the diamante in chapter 6 of English 5 Student Worktext.

The diamante is a shape poem that highlights similarities and contrasts. Though it is seven lines long, it only has sixteen words—six nouns, six verbs, and four adjectives. The first line gives a noun that contrasts with the noun in the last line. The second line gives two adjectives that describe the first noun. Line three gives three verbs (ending in –ing) that show the action of the first noun. Line four gives four nouns, two of which rename the first noun, and two of which rename the last noun. Lines five and six mirror lines two and three, except they describe the last noun, not the first. So it comes out looking something like this:

Fire
angry, orange
glowing, snapping, blistering
tongues, ashes, flurries, icicles
glistening, cracking, aching
sad, blue
ice.

Have your child create her own diamante poem that hopefully looks more like a diamond by using this printable template.

Find more diamante poems in the English 5 Student Worktext.

Remember These Dates in April

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Welcome to the month where some say “April showers bring May flowers.” Whether or not that statement about the weather is true where you live, we can celebrate the literary emphasis that April brings.

For starters, it’s National Poetry Month. A poem presents us with a different way of thinking about a topic. The writer’s (or narrator’s) meaning is not always apparent on the first reading, and this can be frustrating to young readers. That was the case for me. But poetry is a valuable and symbolic way of communicating to others. During my homeschool years, Mom introduced me to this literary genre using Favorite Poems Old and New, a collection of poems for children. My favorite was “Puppy and I” by A. A. Milne. Take time this month to read poetry out loud with your kids and introduce them to the forms and types of poetry.

April 10–16 celebrates National Library Week, and the 2016 theme is “Libraries Transform.” Take time to visit your local library and check out a book for free. The local library opened up a world of learning for me as a child not only because of the books I was able to read but also because of the workers who dedicated their time. Involve your family in doing a random act of kindness for a librarian.

April 1

The origin of April Fool’s Day is uncertain, but we all know that now this date is associated with fun, lighthearted practical jokes. Plan a comedy night family fun night with ideas from Kim at Not Consumed. Watch out, or else the joke might be on you!

Booker T. Washington

April 5

Booker T. Washington was born this day in 1856. As a young man, he had the opportunity to attend a school where he learned to read and write as well as how to contribute to the value of society as a whole through industrial means. Later on Washington used the principles he learned to develop the Tuskegee Institute, a training place for teachers. Learn more of his life and work in this fast facts video.

April 14

Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language was registered with the copyright office on this day in 1828. This book helped standardize the spelling of “American” words and supported many definitions with examples of the word’s use in the Bible. Webster learned twenty-six languages to complete this dictionary. As a child, I had the opportunity to visit Noah Webster’s childhood home in West Hartford, Connecticut. Their website includes a kid’s corner with activities to do with your children.

Hubble Space Telescope

April 24

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space in 1990. It has allowed scientists to observe objects in space without interference from conditions in earth’s atmosphere. As this telescope orbits the earth, it provides clear, colorful images that add to our understanding of the Milky Way Galaxy. Interpreting what these images show us depends on our worldview of how everything came to be. Show your family these images of space taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.